OKWU men to host well-stocked NCCAA basketball regional

After failing to make the NAIA Division II national tournament, the Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s men’s basketball team has been selected to host a major National Christan Collegiate Athletic Association regional March 7-9, at the Mueller Sports Center, Eagle men’s head coach Jason Beschta said Wednesday evening.

Among the visiting men’s teams in the field will be Oklahoma Christian University and Southern Nazarene University.

OKWU is seeded No. 6 in the field, and will play either Southern Nazarene or Colorado Christian in the first round.

The event is taking on massive proportions, with as many as 17 men’s or women’s teams participating.

The men’s field will be either eight or nine strong, depending if Mid-America Christian participates.

The women’s field is yet to be set, and could number anywhere from six to eight teams, Beschta said.

Beschta said the first game Thursday could begin at 10 a.m., with the final game tipping off at 10 p.m.

“We haven’t come up with the complete schedule,” he added.

Beschta’s only concern is finding enough hotel/motel rooms for the visiting teams, especially with the Great American Conference postseason basketball tournament taking place the same weekend, at the Bartlesville Bruin Fieldhouse.

Assuming all works out, Bartlesville residents will be blessed with a plethora of top-notch college basketball games that weekend, at both OKWU and the Bruin Fieldhouse.